Chapter 75: He'll Definitely Get Me Killed, Right?
Laxus Dreyar looked down at Natsu scornfully, a cloud of cigar smoke drifting from his lips to the floor below. "You can't even beat Erza," he said, his voice a low, crackling drawl. "And you want to fight me?"
The words hung in the air, instantly silencing the guild's cheerful chatter.
Erza's face darkened when she heard this. She looked up at Laxus, her hand instinctively going to the hilt of her sword. "What do you mean by that, Laxus?"
She admitted that her strength might not be at his level, but Laxus's words clearly showed he was looking down on her, and on her duel with Ren.
"Hey, Erza, calm down!" Max Aloze quickly advised, holding up his hands. "He's just trying to provoke you!"
The entire guild was on edge. If Erza and Laxus started fighting in the guild, the building wouldn't just be damaged; it would be destroyed.
Laxus merely scoffed at her. He spread his arms wide, small arcs of yellow lightning crackling between his fingertips, and he shouted arrogantly, "It means, I'm the strongest. And I'm tired of all you weaklings pretending otherwise."
"You bastard!" Natsu roared, his own flames erupting in response to the challenge. "Get down here and fight!"
Seeing Laxus's arrogant and condescending manner, Natsu was more than just annoyed; he was furious.
"You come up," Laxus provoked Natsu with a challenging look, gesturing to the second-floor staircase. "If you dare."
The impulsive Natsu fell for it instantly. He angrily charged towards the stairs, "You just wait for me! I'll wipe that stupid look off your face!"
Whoosh!
Before Natsu could even set foot on the first step, Makarov's arm, which had been resting on the bar, suddenly grew larger and longer, becoming a giant's hand.
Bang!!
"Ah—!!"
As Natsu approached the stairwell, he was directly slammed onto the floor by Makarov's giant fist, which held him pinned.
Makarov, his expression uncharacteristically stern, said indifferently, "You can't go up, Natsu. You're not ready yet."
Laxus immediately leaned over the railing and looked down at Natsu, who was struggling under the giant hand. "Oh oh, you made the old man angry," he said, his voice dripping with gleeful mockery.
"Hmph!!" This just made Natsu even more frustrated.
Makarov glanced up at his grandson, his expression a mix of disappointment and exhaustion. "Laxus. That's enough from you, too. Stop tormenting the other members."
Laxus stood up straight, his smile fading into a sneer. He looked at everyone in the guild, his gaze passing over them with contempt. He looked at Gray, who was glaring back. He looked at Elfman, who was gritting his teeth. His eyes paused on Erza, who was still tense and ready for a fight.
Finally, his gaze landed on Ren, who was calmly sipping his drink at the bar, watching the scene with a bored, analytical expression.
"Hah," Laxus snorted. "I won't give the throne of the strongest in Fairy Tail to any of you. Not to Erza and her collection of tin suits. Not to Mystogan, who's too afraid to even show his face. Not to that old uncle Gildarts, who's never even here. And not to you, Ren."
His focus on Ren sharpened, and the electricity in the air intensified. "I've heard all about you, 'Tyrant.' You're just a rookie who got lucky. You're the new flavor of the month. But your time is already over. This guild has become weak. It's soft. It's full of weaklings."
He spread his arms wide again, his voice booming. "And I am the strongest!! Hahahahaha!!"
Laxus, finished with his grand declaration, laughed, turned, and disappeared into the S-Class area.
This arrogant and domineering attitude made many people in the guild feel very annoyed.
Ren, however, felt... nothing.
To be honest, having watched the Fairy Tail anime in his past life, he had a surprisingly good impression of the future Laxus—the one after his redemption. He knew that beneath this arrogant, power-hungry exterior was a man who, deep down, loved the guild. A man who was tough on the outside but soft on the inside, and who would, one day, step up when he was truly needed.
However, the current Laxus was, without a doubt, unlikeable. He was a brat. He had been in the guild for more than half a year, and he had only seen Laxus a handful of times. The two had no interaction, just like he had no interaction with Mystogan.
"Ren," Elfman said, turning to him, his voice a low growl. "Are you just going to watch him be arrogant? He called you out!"
He admitted that Laxus was a powerful monster, and both his sister and Erza were probably weaker than him. But he believed, after seeing the duel last night, that Ren's strength was definitely above Laxus's.
Ren blinked, as if snapping out of a daydream. "What? If he's arrogant, let him be arrogant. I can't just beat him up because he's arrogant, can I?!"
Gray, who had put his shirt back on, said, "You can have a showdown with him! Then defeat him, and thoroughly extinguish his arrogance, so he won't be so arrogant anymore. That's what Natsu would do."
"No fighting," Ren said with a sigh.
Laxus was, after all, Makarov's grandson. Beating him up would just cause a massive headache for the old man. If it were in his previous life, he wouldn't even be able to curry favor with the grandson of such a powerful figure, let alone beat him up.
"Are you afraid to lose?" Gray pressed, curious.
"Winning or losing doesn't matter," Ren said, finishing his drink. "It's just unnecessary. It's a waste of time. I'd rather do more quests with that free time."
Unconsciously, he had been idle for almost half a month, between the Eisenwald incident and the party. Not doing quests for half a month made him feel somewhat anxious.
What can relieve worries? Only a ten-pull.
Ren made up his mind. He would go on that S-Class Quest tomorrow, the one Mira was holding for him.
His hands were already itching.
In the evening, the guild closed, and everyone returned to their homes.
Lucy hummed a song as she walked along the river, the sunset painting the water in shades of orange and purple. She walked to her rented house, her key jingling in her hand.
"Mystogan and Laxus... they're both famous, S-Class figures. Plus Erza... and Ren..." she mused to herself, a smile on her face. "It truly lives up to its name. Fairy Tail is so powerful!"
"I think I now have a rough understanding of the power structure within the guild," she thought, ticking them off on her fingers. "At the very top is the Master, Makarov. Then, right below him, are the S-Class monsters. There's that mysterious 'uncle' Gildarts, who's supposedly the strongest. Then... Ren, Erza, Laxus, and Mystogan."
She wasn't sure how to rank them. Laxus said he was the strongest, but Ren had defeated Erza, and Erza had scared Natsu, and Ren had scared the entire guild...
"The next level down," she continued, "is probably... me and Natsu." She giggled.
"Joining Fairy Tail was indeed the right choice! Starting tomorrow, I'll work hard and take a real job!"
Creak!
Lucy opened her door.
"You're back!"
"You're back..."
"EEEEK! AH AH AH AH!!"
As soon as she opened the door, she was hit with a wall of... smell. She saw Natsu and Happy, both shirtless and sweating profusely, doing intense exercises in the middle of her living room.
Lucy shooed them away with a look of disgust, opening a window. "It stinks!! It smells like sweat and burnt fish! If you want to build muscles, go back to your own house, okay?!"
Natsu, who was in the middle of a one-handed push-up, grinned and handed Lucy a pink dumbbell. "What are you talking about? Aren't we a team! Here, this is for you. You like pink, right?"
Lucy bared her teeth and retorted, "I'm not interested in dumbbells at all!!"
Natsu immediately started doing push-ups again. "To defeat Erza, Laxus, and Ren, I need even stronger power. I'm gonna get super strong!"
"Aye! Strong!" Happy squeaked, trying (and failing) to lift a small weight.
Seeing Natsu continue to exercise, Lucy cried out, "It has nothing to do with me! Hurry home!! Help me, my room smells awful!!"
Suddenly!
Natsu stopped, his face set with a new, fiery determination. "I've decided! I'm going to take an S-Class Quest!"
Happy, in perfect sync, also stopped and unfolded an S-Class Quest request form for Lucy to see.
Looking at the red 'S' stamp, representing an S-Class Quest, Lucy was startled and stammered, "Wh-wh-what's going on?! Isn't the second floor off-limits?"
Mira had told her that only S-Class Mages could go to the second floor, and even Natsu had been slammed to the ground by the Master today just for trying to go up.
Happy said proudly, "I just grabbed it while everyone was watching Laxus."
Lucy's eyes widened. "Thieving cat!"
Natsu put on his clothes and said with a grin, "This is our first S-Class Quest, and we took the cheapest one. Even so, the reward is 7 million J! If we succeed this time, the old man will have to recognize my strength!"
"Wait..." Lucy said, her blood running cold as she looked closer at the paper. "This quest... the reward... the location... This wouldn't happen to be the one Ren was going to do that day, would it?"
Lucy suddenly remembered that day when Erza invited Ren. Ren had gone to the second floor to pick up a quest, and she had secretly glimpsed it then. It seemed to be this very quest.
"Yes! There's only one S-Class Quest on the second floor!" Happy said.
Happy had found out today when he went to steal the quest that there was only one S-Class request on the second-floor board. Mira had been keeping it safe, just as she'd promised.
"No! No, no, no!" Lucy started to panic. "If you go and do this quest... and Ren finds out that you stole the S-Class Quest he was waiting for..."
Natsu nodded and smiled, his face a perfect picture of blissful ignorance. "He'll definitely kill me, right!"
"Aye!"
Happy also agreed, his face serious. Having spent half a year with Ren, they both knew how obsessed Ren was with S-Class Quests. As long as there was an S-Class Quest available, Ren would absolutely not do any ordinary quests.
He almost treated S-Class Quests as his exclusive property. If Ren found out that Natsu had stolen his one available S-Class Quest... even if he wasn't really killed, he would definitely be beaten to a pulp.
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